The journey to implement and improve UX awareness inside an organisation is not easy

How *I* define great UX.

Being my background visual design, passing to web design in an early stage, over the years I’ve learned that for a great user experience, the bigger pictures needs to be considered. Design alone can’t create a great user experience. The value is measured how customers value the experience. It is the value of the expectations, of what has been promised and what the product delivers, that is the ultimate measurement to make.

The journey to implement and improve a UX awareness inside an organisation is not easy.

Early 2015, when I visit The Guardian UX Research Lab, in London, and talk to professionals about their daily experiences and how they deal with stakeholders I faced the same issues: we all have the same problems, I discover. Back in Lisbon, with a green card to implement some of those learnings, I found out that the green was like yellow turning red. The organisation was not ready, some people are. It can be done, but the process is slow.

With all the U-turns that an organisation can take on management and direction to pursuit, professionals needs to adapt to circumstances, not to give up on doing the best work they can fostering for great UX. That is the foundation of my thinking and doing.

Adapt the methods, trust others and trust yourself. Try and error, adapt, try again and so on is the path for great work that users will reward professionals by coming back, every day and engaging with the websites, apps, web apps, etc., that were design with their in mind. Other rewards are inside the organisation, trusting designers work is another reward.

“The show must go on,” that is the reality, people do not stop and show up and browse through the products and services that we design because there are organisational issues to cope. They only stop to show up if the quality of the work is not there. Every time I encounter new stakeholders, my work starts again, advocating for the user and pushing for connection between all. Context is not castrating, the circumstances are the constrains that designers have to work with, just that.

Looking inside and outside.

Evaluating personal skills, decide whether it is the skill-set to have and want to get better at. By engaging the UX community, the dialogue is of learning and sharing knowledge continues. Engaging more strategically with every stakeholder. When creating user experiences, professional cannot look solely at what are the offer, it is imperative to understand the user’s situation. To create great user experiences, designers need to rethink the entire processes.